County Handicap Hurdle Preview, Tips, Runners & Trends (Cheltenham Festival)

2025 County Handicap Hurdle Preview

The County Hurdle is a Grade 3 handicap run on the new course at Cheltenham where runners face eight hurdles over two miles and one furlong. Usually, run at a fast and furious pace and was traditionally the festival finale "Get Out Stakes!" until 2009, whereas it's now the second race on "Gold Cup" Friday.

County Handicap Hurdle Information:

• County Handicap Hurdle Past Winners
• County Handicap Hurdle Trainer Statistics
• County Handicap Hurdle Jockey Statistics

To see which runners the OLBG racing tipsters are tipping throughout the card that includes this race, head over to the Cheltenham tips on the day of the race, do they agree with the runners on the trend shortlist or are they predicting other runners? We cover every race at the Cheltenham Festival and below you can find links to all of the races for each of Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday & Friday.

How competitive is the County Handicap Hurdle market? When looking at the over-rounds for the last 20 renewals, the most competitive market was in 2008 when the race had an over-round of 130%. The race in 2007 was a race that was most in the bookie's favour with an over-round of 145%, whilst on average over the last 20 renewals of the County Handicap Hurdle, the over-round has been 135%, which means the bookie expects to pay out £100 for every £135 which is bet.

County Handicap Hurdle Trends:

• 2025 County Handicap Hurdle Trends
• County Handicap Hurdle Trend Analysis

Looking at the future form, is the winner worth following next time out? From the past 20 if you had followed the winner of the County Handicap Hurdle next time out then you would have backed a total of 6 winners. Backing all 19 runners who have been out since to win at SP next time out, would have returned an LSP of +6.92. Whilst we wait for the 2025 County Handicap Hurdle remember you can get daily racing predictions from the expert tipsters on the racing predictions page.

Over the last 20 renewals, it was the Paul Nicholls trained Desert Quest ridden by R Walsh who set the fastest winning time in the County Handicap Hurdle, the runner won the race in a time of 3:52.70 was set when winning the race in 2006. At the other end of the scale, it was the combination of trainer W P Mullins and jockey Paul Townend with Absurde who set the slowest winning time, the race-winning time was 4:25.10 in the 2024 renewal.

These are the top three quickest-run County Handicap Hurdle over the last 20 renewals:

1. Desert Quest (3:52.70) in 2006
2. Pedrobob (3:53.90) in 2007
3. Final Approach (3:54.77) in 2011

County Handicap Hurdle Past Winners

Here are the County Handicap Hurdle past winners for the last 10 renewals. Each row details the year of the race, the horse which won along with the age & weight of the horse. The trainer of the horse at the time of winning the County Handicap Hurdle as well as the jockey is also displayed along with the starting price the horse was sent off.

Where have the winning runners come from?

Here are the countries where the winning trainers of the County Handicap Hurdle have been based:

• IRE: 12 winners with an additional 25 placings from 188 runners
• GB: 8 winners with an additional 35 placings from 321 runners
• FR: 0 winners with an additional 0 placings from 2 runners

County Handicap Hurdle Trainer Statistics

The leading trainer in the County Handicap Hurdle over the last 20 renewals is W P Mullins who has won the race seven times with those seven winners coming from Thousand Stars (2010), Final Approach (2011), Wicklow Brave (2015), Arctic Fire (2017), Saint Roi (2020), State Man (2022) and Absurde (2024). Other trainers who have recorded multiple wins in the County Handicap Hurdle are Dan Skelton (4 wins) and Paul Nicholls (3 wins). Multiple trainers have not had the best of times over the last 20 renewals in the County Handicap Hurdle, Nicky Henderson (0-34), Gordon Elliott (0-28), Philip Hobbs (0-28), Noel Meade (0-16), Alan King (0-13), Jonjo O'Neill (0-13), David Pipe (0-11), Henry De Bromhead (0-11) and Gary Moore (0-10) have all failed to produce a single winner despite sending multiple runners to the race.

Here are some of the top County Handicap Hurdle trainer statistics over the last 20 renewals (R = Runners, W = Winners, P = Places including winners, Win LSP is based on 1pt Win and EW LSP is based on 0.5pt Win & 0.5pt Place):

County Handicap Hurdle Jockey Statistics

The leading jockey in the County Handicap Hurdle over the last 20 renewals is Paul Townend who has won the race four times with those four winners coming from Wicklow Brave (2015), Arctic Fire (2017), State Man (2022) and Absurde (2024). Other jockeys who have recorded multiple wins in the County Handicap Hurdle are Harry Skelton (2 wins) and Bridget Andrews (2 wins). Two jockeys have not had the best of times over the last 20 renewals in the County Handicap Hurdle, Sam Twiston-Davies has ridden a total of 12 runners to the race without recording any wins whilst Denis O'Regan has ridden 10 without a winner.

Here are some of the top County Handicap Hurdle jockey statistics over the last 20 renewals (R = Runners, W = Winners, P = Places including winners, Win LSP is based on 1pt Win and EW LSP is based on 0.5pt Win & 0.5pt Place):

2025 County Handicap Hurdle Trends

Favourites finishing positions (oldest to latest): 11, (1, 10), 25, 2, 6, 23, 15, 14, (9, F), PU, 13, (4, PU), 6, 16, 4, 1, 10, 1, 17, 2

The percentage shown is the percentage of the total number of runners who fell under that factor. High percentages are less appealing than lower ones as you would expect them to do well.

• 20 / 20 (79%) - No bigger than 7/1 (Last Win)
• 20 / 20 (79%) - No bigger than 12/1 (Career Win)
• 20 / 20 (80%) - Not on GS/FM/STD-SLW/STD (Last Win)
• 20 / 20 (81%) - Beaten no more -22l (LTO)
• 20 / 20 (83%) - Fewer than 3 starts (Class)
• 20 / 20 (85%) - Fewer than 10 starts (Hcps)
• 20 / 20 (86%) - Fewer than 5 placings (Hcps)
• 20 / 20 (86%) - No bigger than 50/1
• 20 / 20 (87%) - Had 2 - 14 placings (Career)
• 20 / 20 (88%) - Not in a LST/Cl6 (Debut)
• 20 / 20 (88%) - Not in a LST/Cl5-6 (LTO)
• 19 / 20 (89%) - No more than +3yrs (Vs Min Age)
• 18 / 20 (79%) - No bigger than 20/1 (Career Place)
• 18 / 20 (82%) - No bigger than 20/1 (LTO)
• 18 / 20 (85%) - No more than -21lbs (Vs Max Weight)

Remember to use the trends listed above along with the Cheltenham racing predictions to see if you can find the winner of the County Handicap Hurdle. How well do you know your horse racing? Are there certain types of races that you are unsure of? Why not take a look at this Types Of Horse Race article to familiarise yourself with the different types of racing, that is just one of many helpful horse racing articles in the OLBG Betting School.

Are you already a member? If not, then why not? With over £6,000 given away each month in the tipster competition, why not get involved? Remember, It is completely FREE! So, head over to the registration page to sign up today! If you are already a member, then share your thoughts on the County Handicap Hurdle by adding a tip on the race here.

County Handicap Hurdle Trend Analysis

The trend factor which had produced 10+ winners and shows the best LSP, an LSP of +59.25 is when runners ran in France on debut. The worst performing factor that has failed to produce a single winner is when runners were aged 7 years old, when backing these the trend shows a record of 0-122.

The course which has produced the most winners of the County Handicap Hurdle is Leopardstown, there has been a total number of 6 winners of this race who ran at Leopardstown last time out. The next best course which has produced the second most winners is Newbury, there has been a total number of 3 winners of this race who ran at Newbury last time out.

The race is open to both sexes with the Male runners having produced a total of 20 winners from a total of 485 runners whilst the Female runners have produced 0 winners from a total of 26 runners.

Looking over the past renewals, there is only one stallion whose offspring have produced multiple winners of the County Handicap Hurdle, that stallion Coastal Path has produced 2 winners (2023,2020).

These are the stallions whose offspring have not produced a winner of the County Handicap Hurdle despite multiple attempts:

• Montjeu (0 Wins from 12 runners)
• Arcadio (0 Wins from 7 runners)
• Authorized (0 Wins from 7 runners)
• Fame And Glory (0 Wins from 7 runners)
• Kings Theatre (0 Wins from 7 runners)

Looking at the winning odds over the last 20 renewals, the biggest-priced winner was Silver Jaro in 2008, winning for T Hogan at odds of 50/1 under the guidance of Noel Fehily. Looking at the runners at the head of the market over the last 20 renewals there have been 3 winning favourites in the race. Whilst we wait for the 2025 County Handicap Hurdle remember you can get daily racing predictions from the top racing tipsters on the best racing tipsters page.

Schedule for Tuesday at the Cheltenham Festival

Prepare for the ROAR of the Cheltenham Festival on the opening day when the tape goes up for the Supreme Novices Hurdle, the feature on Tuesday is the Champion Hurdle.

Schedule for Wednesday at the Cheltenham Festival

The dust has settled on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival and now on to day two. The feature on the second day is the Queen Mother Champion Chase. We also have the cross country scheduled on Wednesday, a race like Marmite, some love it and some don't!

Schedule for Thursday at the Cheltenham Festival

Halfway through the festival and onto day three where the Stayers Hurdle is the feature race. A hurdle race to test the stamina and see how can last best up the Cheltenham hill.

Schedule for Friday at the Cheltenham Festival

The final day of the festival and feature race that we have all been waiting for, the Cheltenham Gold Cup in which the Irish have been fairly dominant in recent years.